7 Reasons You Should Be Using Social Media

1. Social media is the 21st century Town Hall.

People do not meet the way they used to. Sure, we all still attend meetings at church and at city hall and at our children's teacher conferences, but more and more people are congregating online. Did you know that, according to iStrategyLabs, Facebook's United States' user base grew by 144.9% in 2009? Some estimates put all Facebook activity worldwide at as high as 20% of all internet traffic!

Facebook, and increasingly Twitter, are the places people are going to find out what is happening in the lives of their friends and family. Furthermore, with the explosion of fan pages, users are seeking out news from businesses, organizations, and causes that they support.

Friends and family meet regularly on Facebook. Colleagues and like-minded people use Twitter to share ideas throughout the day. Professionals are connecting on LinkedIn. Flickr and YouTube stream photos and videos to the world eternally. And blogs are maintained for topics as varied as pro football officiating and crocheting. All this is going on 24 hours a day, every day of every year. Is your business connecting with people where they are now?

2. Yours is a small company.

You own a small business, perhaps a local party store or an independent insurance agency. Social media is intriguing, but you cannot see the benefit to a business of your size. Let's say you own a small party store. You check out the largest chain pharmacy's Facebook Fan Page. They have 433,000+ fans. Do you have 433,000 customers?

Or say you are an insurance agent. After spending some time on a national insurer's Facebook fan page, you find you're joining 16,600+ others. Do you have 16,600 clients?

Small businesses need revenue streams more than ever. One cost effective way to generate business is through social media marketing. People who become your fans and see regularly what you post on your fan page are more likely to do business with you than a larger company with whom they might not share a connection.

Social media does not have to be a daily task, but it certainly should be something used weekly. A small business might post community news, events in the lives of staff members and their families, cross-promotions with other local businesses, and content related to its products or services.

3. Yours is a large company.

You are a president of business development for a large, globally-known company. The board of directors has asked you to find new ways of connecting with prospective customers. Let's go back to the example of chain pharmacies. The number of fans is staggering - 433,000 - when you consider how few fans Competitor #1 has (5,967) and that Competitor #2's page (88 fans) is apparently created by someone outside the company. If you are in business development for the competitors, do you think there is an urgency to use social media effectively?

Social media is essential to large companies in the 21st century. Modern consumers are discerning and intelligent. They want companies to be responsive and transparent. Social media allows your company to hear from and speak with customers, address their concerns, and generate positive feelings about your brand.

4. Your client base is mostly local.

Your company is successful on the local level; it sustains your business and you've reported moderate growth for several years. But lately you have wanted to drive business on a larger level.

Social media is a place to go "remote" while never leaving home. The beauty of platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is that you can reach a global audience from wherever you are. These sites will allow your business to be seen and known by thousands and thousands of people who might otherwise never know it existed.

Your business can promote its products and/or services to these new potential customers. You can inform them of your past successes and current specials. You can tailor orders easily without having to spend time on the phone or meet in person. Social media will introduce you to new people and render services to them more efficiently.

As well, local support will grow for your business so long as you focus some content on items of local interest. Producing social media content about civic news, high school events, community fundraisers, and the like will keep your base loyal and growing.

5. Your client base is mostly remote.

Your company sells mostly to customers who are remotely located from you. You engage people mostly through your website. Business is good, but you haven't made much progress with local customers. Perhaps you are a new business in a region that has long been faithful to a competitor. Social media is a way to bridge this gap. Your company may simply suffer from a lack of exposure. A strong presence on social media sites is evidence to prospective customers that you are interested in their ideas and that you are responsive to their concerns. These platforms of "open conversation" can showcase your business as part of a mutually-supportive community.

6. Your friends (and their friends) are your best advocates.

Who are you more likely to trust when he says you should buy a car from a particular dealer - someone you just met on the street or your friend of 20 years? We hope you chose the latter. If so, you are like 99% of the people in this world who believe the word of their friends because they share a common past and have trusted them in other situations.

A company needs friends or fans or followings (depending on the social media platform). You need not fear that you are breaching a social contract with friends so long as your social media is about your customers, their needs, and conversations driven by them. Strangers don't want to be "sold" anything and neither do your friends.

Social media is about conversation and community and relationships. Developing strong relationships does not mean you cannot promote your business, but it does mean you have to listen more than you talk.

7. Money goes where people go.

You can't afford not to participate. The perception of social media is that it is for young people. Sure, Facebook and MySpace began as platforms for college students and high school kids. However, according to iStrategy Labs, Facebook users of the age 35 and older are now 30% of the entire user base. Additionally, in 2009, users who are 55+ grew an astounding 922.7%. In fact, every demographic grew in 2009 except college users.

So everyone and their brothers are using Facebook and other social media platforms. Grandmothers are sharing pictures of grandchildren on Flickr. Auto dealerships are bringing the showroom to the customer's home with videos of cars on YouTube. And the local coffee shop is "linked in" with a new coffee bean distributor with lower shipping costs. People are taking their lives and their money to these virtual worlds. Are you there to meet them?

Getting Started Yesterday

Social media, while not ubiquitous to business, is by no means still a mystery. There are thousands of businesses of all sizes who "get it". Is yours one of them? If so, that is great and we'd love to share insights with you. If not, how will you get up to date? Where do you begin?

Facebook is the proverbial tip of the social media iceberg. The best advice we have is: choose one to three platforms and commit yourself to producing content on each one consistently. If we had to suggest three, we would probably choose Facebook, LinkedIn, and a company blog. However, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and many other sites have their merits. Depending on your size, time constraints, and budget, you may want to hire an outside agency to handle social media content. Whichever path you choose, we welcome you to the conversation.

iStrategyLabs is a social media solutions company. Their Facebook research can be found by searching their name in a Google search.

Now, we understand that the majority of businesses do not have the time to execute even half of these engagement methods. At Xspond, we can. Our social media staff can implement these ideas and all the other ones we develop with you. Let us show you how at http://www.xspond.com.

Social Media Programs
Work Phone: 810-225-8350

The History of Trade and Using it as a Weapon for Peace

The Flow of Trade is a major consideration of civilizations and cultures working together to insure that they can get what they need. Some areas have special crops, which grow in their regions, which the other regions would like to have. In days of the First colonies in this country, before it was a country trade with the local Indians were vital to them staying alive. Our ancestors traded with the Native Indian tribes to insure the colony had the food and things needed to get through the winter months.

If it were not for the Native Indians in those first winters the Pilgrims would have died, starved and frozen. Civilizations' trading has been written about throughout history and every culture, race, nationality and religion have ancient writings to show for it. It seems as if trade partners is a way to exchange the products and services to improve quality of life and higher standard of living to both sides. It brings with it, possibilities for peace and opens cultural exchange and best of all it makes friends. We can learn a lot from fellow cultures, species and nationalities.

Today trade partners are keeping peace in the world, because you are less likely to attack or want to cause war against a group or country from which you derive products, natural resources, technology, enlightenment, services, assistance or other form of trade from. Today most of the peace has been nurtured through trade. Many of our wars have in part been due to trade disputes. For instance the Japanese in WWII part of the reason was due to rubber, oil, steel trade and other resources. Our breaking with England in the revolutionary war was over tea, taxes and other serious issues. Many of our allies in wars were those who were trading partners, for fear of loss of a trading partner. Today we have partial reason for wars over natural resources like Oil.

Today in the news most of our hardships or disputes come from unequal trading partners trying to get a little extra by manipulating currencies. Free trade is a good thing provided the sides trading have what the others need, items they do not wish to produce or cannot produce for the same costs due to regional temperature variations, labor forces, raw materials or cultural norm. Sometimes as many found triangle trading partners worked because one country needed something but the trading partner did not need what the other had extra to sell, but a third partner did and the first partner only had enough to supply her own country. But the first partner needed what the third partner had. Eventually the trading ended up using a unit of trade such as gold, silver, etc. Then eventually gold coins and silver coins and currency came into play.

In Amsterdam a whole new trading hub created with interest, currency, banks, and trade of every good known to man at that time. This was the combination of centuries and millennium of trade and what was learned. Civilization and modern living with amenities and time for recreation, thinking and personal items became possible and thrust the world into a better place of working together. Wars of course did not stop, but rather the shift in thinking began to take shape. Trading partners and allies are generally all part of the strategic thinking of wars or of peace.

Perhaps we might deploy more of the old world thinking of trading partners to the current conflicts which plague mankind. Think about it

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Using a Health Savings Account to Buffer the Coming Medicare Insolvency

The Medicare Trust Fund will soon be out of money, and there will be no practical way for the government to continue to provide the level of benefits that current Medicare recipients receive. The result will be serious rations, waiting periods, and a reduction in benefits. If you wish to maintain your medical freedom, and have access to a high level of medical service, you must be prepared to pay for it yourself. The best strategy is to take good care of your health, and to build up medical retirement funds as large as possible by using Health Savings Accounts.

The Coming Medicare Insolvency

The total federal debt is now over $10 trillion. But if you also include the current unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare, and other programs, the total federal debt is at least $54 trillion. This number has been confirmed in three separate studies - by the American Enterprise Institute, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Brookings Institution.

It is difficult to get a grasp of a number that big. That's $180,000 per person currently living in the United States. It is four times the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, the measure of the final value of all goods and services produced in this country in the course of a year.

As the program is currently structured it is unsustainable, and the fund is expected to be depleted by 2018. That is a mere 11 years from now. The shortfall in Social Security and Medicare revenues will continue to increase as the years go by - it will exceed $2 trillion by 2030. At that point, half of all tax dollars will have to go to Social Security and Medicare.

That clearly can't happen. Instead, the system will face massive cuts in benefits, probably in addition to large tax increases.

Who Will Pay Your Medical Expenses During Retirement?

So will Medicare be there for you? It depends on how old you are. Unless you are retiring in the next couple years, I certainly wouldn't count on it, particularly if you want to insure that you have access to high quality medical care during your retirement years.

Last year Fidelity Investments reported that the average couple retiring in 2006 would need $200,000 just to cover medical expenses during retirement. That estimate did not include the cost of over-the-counter medications, most dental services and, long-term care, if needed. And it did not include the charges that are currently paid by Medicare.

If we cannot depend on Medicare to be there for us, the only smart solution is to save as much money as possible. This will ensure that you can obtain the quality care you need. If you are not currently putting as much money as possible aside to pay for these expenses yourself, you are making a serious mistake.

What Is Your Solution?

As most readers already know, the very best tool for accumulating funds for future medical expenses is a Health Savings Account. An HSA is the only investment that provides a tax deduction when you deposit the money, yet never taxes the money if it is used to pay for qualified medical expenses.

Therefore, you should put as much money as possible into your Health Savings Account, and withdraw as little as possible. The contribution limit for 2007 is $2,850 for an individual, and $5,650 for families. Those over 55 can also contribute an $800 catch-up contribution. Making the maximum contribution each year will help you build a medical retirement fund that can be used to pay future medical expenses, tax-free.

Rather than withdrawing money from your account to pay for medical expenses as they occur, you should pay for medical expenses that are not covered by your health insurance, out of your own pocket. Save your receipts (for doctor visits, eye glasses, aspirin, etc), and leave your money in the account to grow tax-deferred. There is no time limit before you have to reimburse yourself, so you can make the most of this tax-free investment.

As soon as possible, you may also want to transfer some of the money into mutual funds. While some HSA administrators are paying interest rates as high as 5%, the only way you are going to really grow the account is to get a much higher return on your money. Many HSA administrators offer a discount brokerage option, so you can place your funds in virtually any stock or mutual fund.

For a family that contributes the maximum contribution each year, it is quite reasonable to assume an HSA account value well over $1 million after 25 or 30 years. Medicare may be broke, but at least you won't be.

"Medicare HSAs?"

The solution to the pending Medicare meltdown is very complicated, but it is clear that government-run medical programs don't work. The dismal results can be seen everywhere, from the former Soviet-bloc countries, to the broken down national healthcare systems of Canada and Europe. Medicare must be transformed into a program where seniors have an ownership interest in the money they are spending.

Replacing the government's obligation to provide benefits with a voucher that seniors could use to purchase health insurance from competing private insurers, and/or deposit into a "Medicare Health Savings Account," would bring market efficiencies and competition into the picture. This idea is endorsed by both the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association.

Retirement HSAs may or may not ever come to fruition. But fortunately, HSA plans are available to those under age 65. If you do not yet have an HSA, get signed up for one now. You will lower your health insurance premiums, and can begin putting money aside for medical expenses you will almost inevitably incur during your older years.

By Wiley Long - President, HSA for America (http://www.health--savings--accounts.com) - The nation's leading independent health insurance firm specializing in HSA Plans that work with Health Savings Accounts.

Producing A High Income Using Affiliate Marketing And Advertising On The Net

Finding a way to get ahead inside the affiliate marketing sector isn't as challenging as most people may believe. With respect to the ambitions or perhaps the purpose right behind somebody joining the affiliate programs, you will find ways that just about anyone can generate anywhere from a little subsidiary paycheck all the way up to a huge cash flow.

Personal web masters all over the place have been in a position to place advertising on their sites in return for a handful of dollars every now and again, when large companies happen to be able to make enormous chunks of money by way of marketing other Internet sites by way of their own Internet sites.

It is really an marketing choice that has no barriers and no limits. Individuals with huge Online past experiences along with enormous budgets are equally as accepted as people who have no knowledge concerning computer systems and also have a very limited financial backing. Businesses might want to end up being represented through people who are more likely to draw in huge amounts of clients, but in fact virtually any promotion they can get hold of, they're going to make use of, especially when it is totally free.

For a man or woman, who is new to the field, one thing that must be done is selecting a provider, or maybe a selection of providers to work with, for your site to represent. You can find countless websites which offer online marketers the chance for them to join directly through their sites, in addition to a range of affiliate network program Internet sites which represent a number of clientele, normally from the exact same sector. More substantial businesses together with the capability for further growth or even a massive return of business are potentially the most likely to flourish for a brand new affiliate marketer.

The online gambling sector is among several which have been experiencing massive increases, generating huge amounts of money on a yearly basis. Together with worldwide attractiveness and a constantly increasing clientele the particular sports wagering marketplace is one of the biggest of them contained underneath the broader banner associated with web gaming. Sports wagering is and always has been a favorite activity for men and women around the globe, for that reason its attraction is not limited by individual nations or even regions. this in itself helps to make this the ideal market in which to start your own personal affiliate marketing small business.

Comparable to a lot of the gaming industries affiliate programs, sports betting provides their own affiliate marketers a share of a gamers capital that was created for the Internet site. Funds are made essentially when they lose a bet, as a result every time the gambler doesn't win, the particular affiliate marketer does. And with the affiliate marketers picking about thirty five percent of the gamblers cash that has signed up by means of their website, it's not tough to see just how the income could effortlessly start flowing in when you obtain a handful of customers.

As opposed to almost all industries the affiliates are usually not quite as vicious when it comes to the level of competition for first time customers, with that in mind it's certainly not hard for novices to be able to corner their particular industry. Nevertheless in order to turn into a flourishing affiliate marketer you must first lure a constant flow of visitors to your own site. if you don't have human traffic you can never expect to achieve the essential clicks on your current affiliate links and also to be able to start out earning the big money. For that reason just like all websites it usually is in your best interests to enhance your Internet sites visibility, by means of marketing

Dedy A. is a full time writer that already reviews a lot of high quality products. Find out one of his very recommended product: Ferrari Jacket and High Definition TV Reviews.

How To Pick Winning Lottery Numbers Using The Killer Strategies!

"How to pick winning lottery numbers" is a frequently asked question by most lottery players.

The next million dollar question is "is it really possible to pick winning numbers by using some strategies? Or the numbers are just so randomly picked that it is something so unpredictable?"

Majority of the lottery players play and buy lottery without a system or strategy. That is also why so many players ended up losing lots of money in lotteries. They just simply buy and simply lose! If you are a regular lottery buyer and wanted to make it big, then learn know how to pick winning lottery numbers.

It is not all about luck. There ARE systems and strategies from which you can learn how to pick winning lottery numbers.

One of the strategies on how to pick winning lottery numbers is what commonly known as "hot and cold number" method. This method is where you can check out the regularly drawn numbers (known as "hot number") and buy those numbers for your entry. Some numbers, like "38" do appear more often than any other numbers for an unexplainable reason. Britain's National Lottery Commission released a report that stated since the number 38 popped up so many times, lotto games seemed not to be random.

On the other hand, "cold numbers" refer to numbers which are rarely drawn or have not been drawn for some time. Some people prefer to go for the "cold number" hoping that they will be drawn soon since they are lesser drawn. While this strategy is not a guaranteed way where you can predict what the next winning numbers will be, it does help in having a better guess on what are the "hot numbers" that might appear again in the next game.

Another strategy on how to pick winning lottery numbers is by using a lottery wheel system. This is a system which helps you to generate a combination of numbers from your chosen numbers. The wheel can help you to arrange the numbers in a certain way that can enhance your chances of winning lottery prizes.

There are a few types of wheel. A full wheel provides the most combination of numbers that you have chosen. As such, it gives you the highest chance to win the lottery. That is also why it is more expensive than the other types of lottery wheel.

Another wheel is called "abbreviated wheel". It gives you lesser set of numbers but one of the set is guaranteed to win. It is less costly than the full wheel.

The 3rd strategy on how to pick winning lottery numbers is by using a number generator which will help producing your personal lucky number based on the relation between numbers and other factors, like mystical, physical or any other living things.

This system combines items such as number of your first name, the total sum after adding up the numbers of your birth date, and generate a "lucky" number for you. Again, this is not a guaranteed system. But it is nice to have and fun to do. There are things that just beyond what our mind can apprehend or explainable by science.

The 4th strategy on how to pick winning lottery numbers is by using an established system. In this regard, the Silver Lotto System is the only system which enhances your chance of winning the lottery by eliminating the "bad" numbers. "Bad numbers" are numbers or sequences of numbers that never appear in a lotto game. By eliminating those "bad numbers", the system focuses on numbers that normally drawn. That has increased the rate of winning the lottery game to as high as 99%.

With the above strategies, you should now have a better idea on how to pick winning lottery numbers. This is an important tip on winning the lottery. Do it right and your chances to win big in lottery would be closer by!

To learn more about how to pick winning lottery numbers using the guaranteed system, Click here: http://www.SureWinLotteryTips.info

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